Other destinations are available – take a look at the Helsinki offers page. Note that there are some typos on that page where Qatar has written the economy fare where the business fare should be, and vice versa!

You must book by 15th August for travel in a narrow window between 10th October and 10th December.

…. which is certainly not bad. Beyond Doha you would be on a long haul plane if travelling outside the Middle East.

There is a small chance that you get one of the handful of A320 aircraft with older ‘recliner’ seating below although these are usually kept off European routes. Feedback from people who have flown this also seems be OK for what is, after all, a day flight.

Flying Manchester – Helsinki – Doha – Dubai is pretty darn convoluted, especially when Emirates will fly you direct! If you treat the journey as a bit of fun, and you think of all the tier points and Avios you are earning as well as the money you are saving, you may consider it worth it.

On the Asia routes it makes more sense, especially when you think of the 560 BA tier points that Helsinki – Doha – Bangkok return would bring you.

PS. If you are heading to Dubai, there is an unadvertised Qatar Airways deal out of Stockholm at the moment. This guarantees you a brand new Boeing 787 from Stockholm to Doha which beats the A320 hands down. The fare is 9,136 SEK which is £816 (EDIT: comments below suggest fares of 8,461 SEK – £749 – are out there.). It can be booked via the standard Qatar booking page here. You should also check Qatar Airways fares to Dubai from London which have been around £1,000 on selected dates recently.

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Hopefully this will stimulate AY to launch some of their better offers exUK. I’m in market for two revenue returns to seAsia next March but as usual I don’t find exEU via ME very appealling; overall journey times are too long and the transit hours often too unsociable.

The A320 business class usually looks a lot better than that! Most aircraft have the same seats as used by AA on the A321T in business class. If travelling with a partner I’d prefer the QR A320 to the QR 787.

I think the photo of the A320 cabin there is of the “handful of A320 aircraft with older ‘recliner’ seating … usually kept off European routes”. I’ve certainly flown that cabin from Doha to Dubai and Alexandria. The few “longhual” A320s have proper lie flat seating, and I think is the same seat as on the refurbed A346.

I found that QR fare a few days ago and posted it on flyer talk, its a great deal. However I have also been finding really great fares from other ex European cities to places such as BKK for around the 1000 mark and some even from the UK which I would say are pretty good deals.

This is probably because the route is fairly new? I had the same problem when I booked PSA-DOH but the BA calculator has now been updated and it shows 140 tier points. I imagine Helsinki will be the same as it’s a slightly longer route.

Off Topic but any news on the BA retrofit of the 747’s? Read it was completed today which means IFE upgrades for 18 of the 747 fleet. Not flow upper deck CW yet so keen to try and snag a ticket on a retrofit. Any way to tell which are done and which are old?

Easiest way is to look up which planes are in rotation on the route you are interested in and then check the registrations on thebasource.com – if they show up as 86J (Super-High J) it means you’re in a retrofit aircraft.

British Airways premium economy is a pretty poor product so I would say yes it is worth the changes and extra time in order to benefit from the comfort, service and tier points. That said it probably depends in part on where you live and what time you want to reach your destination. Later this year I am flying to Bangkok on an ex EU Qatar flight from Amsterdam which was sub €1,000 return. I live in London and will need to leave home at 0900 and will arrive in Bangkok at 1240 the following day. Timing works really well. With BA Premium Economy, I would need to leave home by 1300 and would arrive in BKK at 0925…..and probably find room not ready at the hotel. If living much further from Heathrow, the choice might de different – but then again there could be the possibility to take a positioning flight to Amsterdam from a local aerodrome. Amsterdam probably more convenient than Helsinki for an ex EU.

As raffles says -> the Tier points could be very handy (I personally would buy TP’s at £1 each so deduct this from the cost of any flight I’m looking at).

For the Helsinki fare its really interesting to a plane geek. In theory you could tick off the Finnair A350 in full flat business LHR-HEL, experience a Qatar Long Haul A320, which I agree is the best config if travelling with a partner, and get to sample the super posh Qatar Flounge on your way though Qatar. Krug’s £120 a bottle, I reckon I could do 2 bottles with a 3 hour layover :).

HEL to BKK for £1082 plus the cost of a biz flight to HEL at perhaps £300 makes a total of £1400 or thereabouts and with the extra re-check in plus delay plus awful extra connection on the way back, it is a no brainer “no thanks” from me.

Finnair from LHR to BKK can be had from £1550 one some of my dates. Perhaps better on others ?